Road Food

[chow guy]

I always ask several people starting with the most "arty" place in town (gallery ,antique store etc. ) I ask very specific questions like. What is your favorite____place and what do you eat when you go there. I have to say I have a sixth sense and often stumble upon good food in unknown towns. Avoid asking motel clerks, cops, and truck drivers.

[rooftop1000]

FiFi nailed one with the motorcycle touring people, which I guess I am one. Going from Jersey to Knoxville in a few months so I looked up the local chapter of GWRRA - Gold wing road riders association...our motto is live to ride ride to eat. Got a few suggestions for breakfasts on the more obvious "biker roads".

Very important to think ahead on these trips since carry on food may be limited to a granola bar and some water

something about Knoxville though not a lot of info out there......

[CtznCane]

First, get off and stay off the Interstate.  If that's impossible, take a small town exit, drive away from the plastic places surrounding the exit.  Most any small town, especially most any small town in the south, has at least one good eatin' place.  I'll drive down Main Street and the side main streets.  Can usually find a promising place.

3 years ago we drove from Santa Rosa to New Orleans and back. This was in my pre-eG days but I used the web to find local articles of the towns we would be in for dinner. Most of our dinner eating was planned ahead with a couple of decisions (in New Orleans) made by a city guide and the friend whose b&b we stayed out outside the French Quarter. We had nothing but great meals on our trip except for one.

Only once on our trip did I get off the beaten and that was when driving on St.Patricks day from New Orleans to ElPaso. I'd driven the whole way that day and Carolyn was to drive after dinner. I turned off in Sonora,Tx figuring we'd find some nice local place. Yeah, right. I find one Tex-Mex restaurant. Los Jarritos. The worst service I've ever had anywhere. They screwed Carolyn's order up not once but twice, and then took forever to correct it, all the time saying it would be soon. By the time they got it right she wanted no part of the place (and neither did I.) Not to mention their Mens room was unusable. Not closed, just unusable, lest I say more. As a result we hightailed it out and I had to listen to the grief about that place from Sonrora to Fort Stockton where we stopped, yes on the interstate and hit a Sonics. Needless to say, my much looked forward to rest from driving did not take place as I drove the rest of the way to ElPaso. 1100 mile day.

Our running joke to this day is will we ever find a worse place than Los Jarritos? So the last thing I'm gonna do any more is get off the beaten track in some one horse town to look for food without a reference.

[Milt]

For most of my adult life, I chose independent places (when possible) by the local license plates during regular dining hours. It worked fairly well. Then one day, NPR did a story on Chowhounds. I checked their site and used their references for our next vacation. I printed out all references to good places where we would be travelling. I didn't know at what hour we would be in what community. My wife thought I was crazy - taking this stack of printouts on a vacation. It was the first trip ever without a single bad meal. Later, I didcovered eGullet, Roadfood, and several local sites.

Now, I peruse all available sites. Collectively, I have received incredible information and have discovered a number of places that I would never have tried otherwise. Still, when we are hungry and have no recommended places available, we use the old local cars in the parking lot method - which still works quite well.

Fortunately, there is very little that we aren't willing to eat. That makes travel a lot simpler. Catfish, BBQ, seafood, Thai, Greek, etc. are all worth a stop if they prepare tasty food.